74 THE BIRTHPLACE OF MATTHEW PRIOR. 



Dr. Samuel Johnson, in the account of Prior, given in his 

 " Lives of the Poets," writes : 



" Matthew Prior is one of those that have burst out from an obscure orig- 

 inal to groat eminence. He was born July 21, 1664, according to some, at 

 Winburn in Dorsetshire, of I know not what parents ; others say that he was 

 the son of a joiner in London : he was perhaps willing enough to leave his 

 birth unsettled, in hope, like Don Quixote, that the historian of his actions 

 might find him some illustrious alliance." 



And in a note the great lexicographer adds : 



* " The difficulty of settling Prior's birthplace is great. In the register of 

 his college ho is called, at his admission by the President (a) Matthew Prior 

 of Winburn in Middlesex ; by himself next day (b) Matthew Prior of Dorset- 

 shire, in which county, and not in Middlesex, Winborne . . in the Vittare 

 is, found. When he stood a candidate for his fellowship, five years after- 

 wards, he was registered again by himself as of (c) Middlesex . . . It is 

 observable that, as a native of Wimborne, he is styled Filius Georgii Prior, 

 generosi ; not consistently with the common account of the meanness of his 

 birth." 



The account of Prior in the last edition of Hutchins' Dorset, 

 at any rate, so far as his early life is concerned, is taken from 

 Dr. Johnson's " Lives of the Poets," whole sentences and even 

 paragraphs being copied verbatim. But the editors add the 

 statement, given if I remember rightly by Hutchins, though 



* (a) Matthaeus Prior, Dorcestr : (altered by a later hand to Middlesexiensis) 

 filius Georgii Prior, generosi, natus infra Winburn in praedicto comitatu, 

 atquo literis institutus in schola Westmonasterieiisi sub M'ro Busby per 

 trieimium, admissus est pensionarius aetatis suae 17, et quod excurrit, 

 tutore et fidejussore ejus M'ro Billers, 2 Aprilis, 1683. [Admission Registers 

 of St. John's Coll : Cambridge. Pt. II., pp. 92-93. Deighton 1893], 



(b) Ego Matthaeus Prior, Dorcesiriensis, juratus et admissus sum in dis- 

 cipulum hujus collegii pro domina Sarah ducisca Somersettiensi ex ipsius 

 nominationc die 3'" Aprilis (1683). 



(c) Ego Matthaeus Prior, Middlesexiensis, juratus et admissus sum in 

 perpetu' socium hujus Coll", pro D're Keyton, decessore M'ro Roper, 3 April, 

 1638. 



